The Azerbaijani former and present officials’ attitude towards and comments on the discovery of a driver’s license in Baku, and in the name of a citizen of Armenia, has shown their real face.

A driver’s license in the name of Aleksandr Arakelyan, a citizen of Armenia, who was born in 1982, and which was issued on August 27, 2014 by the law enforcement authorities of Armenia, was found in the Azerbaijani capital city.

Later it became known that this driver’s license probably belongs to Lieutenant Colonel Aleksan Arakelyan, who had fallen during the four-day war which Azerbaijan had unleashed against Nagorno-Karabakh in early April. 

Thus, it becomes clear that an Azerbaijani, who had participated in this war, had brought this driver’s license back along with him, and then had thrown it away.

The Azerbaijani side, however, has attempted to turn this tragedy into farce.

As case in point, Haqqin.az news agency of Azerbaijan tries to “explain” the finding of this Armenian driver’s license as follows: “No one has ever prohibited ethnic Armenians from entering Azerbaijan, and many Armenians gladly make use this opportunity (…). [But] naturally, people with last names ending in ‘yan’ do not reveal their visits [to Azerbaijan] (…).”

Sulheddin Akper, Former Deputy National Security Minister of Azerbaijan, spoke to Haqqin.az and confirmed that, “An Azerbaijan entry ban is not specified for Armenians, at least because our country has joined dozens of international and European conventions on the protection of the rights of national minorities.”

But Arastun Orculu, a former employee of the Azerbaijani state security agencies, believes that the discovery of the driver’s license of an Armenian citizen does not prove that this person is actually in Baku.

“Perhaps, one of our citizens found it abroad and brought it home along with him, and then threw it away,” stated the former Azerbaijani official. 

And Azerbaijani MP Fazail Agamali argued that the Azerbaijani special services and law enforcement should deal with the Armenians who are—allegedly—in Baku.